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Immigrants must pass a test to be U.S. citizens.
DODY KUNDRESKAS
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COULD YOU PASS THE TEST? CHILDREN BORN IN U.S ARE CITIZENS: In most countries of both the European Union and western nations, a child born to illegal immigrants in that country is not automatically given citizenship. In the United States a birth certificate is still evidence of citizenship no matter the status of the parents. However, the Supreme Court has never explicitly ruled on this issue
Immigrants who wish to become U.S. citizens must pass a test. I wonder if the average American would succeed. By Jim Kundreskas
Date published: 7/19/2008
VISITING OUR public library last week, I happened to notice a little brochure titled "Preparing for the U.S. Citizenship Interview," and it read on the cover that was set up for "Intermediate ESL Students."
ESL, you probably know, stands for "English as a second language," and I picked up the brochure and took it home to read later.
English is a first, and only, language for me, but I was still interested to see what was inside that little booklet.
The tutorial was published by the Literacy Volunteers of Charlottesville/Albemarle, and was intended to be studied by someone preparing for the interview part of the U.S. citizenship naturalization process.
Inside were 70 questions, most of them easy but some surprisingly hard, and I'm figuring myself to be a pretty average American citizen.
Now, I also fully realize that regular readers of this column, possessing such impeccable good taste, are probably not a good statistical sample, but I'm guessing you're also typical citizens.
NO CHEATING
Let's see how you do on some sample questions. Here are seven easy ones I found inside that citizenship brochure, plus seven more in there that were a fair bit harder:
1) How many original Colonies were in America?
2) What is the national anthem?
3) Who was the first president?
4) Who is the governor of Virginia?
5) Who said, "Give me liberty or give me death"?
6) Who were our enemies in World War II?
7) What is the capital of Virginia?
Now, some harder ones:
8) Who is the Supreme Court chief justice?
9) What is the most important right granted to a U.S. citizen?
10) Who becomes president if the president and vice president die?
11) How many constitutional amendments do we have?
12) When was the Constitution written?
13) What holiday was celebrated for the first time by the American colonists?
14) What kind of government does the United States have?
I doubt that you really need the first seven answers to see how you did on this little quiz, but I'll give all 14 of them now:
1) 13
2) "The Star-Spangled Banner"
3) George Washington
4) Tim Kaine
5) Patrick Henry
6) Japan, Italy and Germany
7) Richmond
8) John Roberts
9) the right to vote
10) speaker of the House
11) 27
12) 1787
Date published: 7/19/2008
Most recent reader comments:
The Supreme Court needs to get busy
(posted by
blowinsmoke
, July 19, 2008 11:39 am)
Two wrongs don't produce a right.
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